Pokedex One-Shots (PG)

Hello there. I'm a professional writer, but I do fanfic work mostly as practice. I came up with this little exercise when I ran out of ideas for practices. Basically, I'm going to write short stories themed around one Pokemon based solely on their Pokedex entries. So I've got pics, the in-game descriptions, cries (if I have them on my games), size comparisons, possibly moves if one sounds interesting.

I loved it! I can't see any errors and it sounds like a good idea, keep writing them . However, next time, could you post the 'dex entry you based the story on as there are almost as many as there are games for each pokemon.

Also, these people may live in the middle of nowhere, but surely they'd know that Magikarp evolves into Gyarados?

Very nice, very adorable! No mistakes as far as I could tell, and it made me go awww. I like the idea of people not realizing that Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, without a Pokedex that does seem like kind of a stretch; that little fish evolving into that big old dragon thing? Anyway, the Pokedex one-shot idea as a whole is very intriguing, and I can't wait to read more. Keep up the good work!

MAGIKARP
Fire Red entry: It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic POKéMON in the world.

It was a tranquil summer afternoon in the country. Nincadas and Kricketots hummed and chirped, while at least five different birds from Pidgey to Taillow sang in the trees. The home was well off the main route, so few people came out here. A woman hummed half-songs to herself as she hung out laundry to dry. So lovely and quiet, it was a good place to raise a family.

“Momma!”

She stopped at the frightened cry. Her seven-year-old daughter ran up in tears. Forgetting the laundry, she knelt down and hugged her. She was shaking. “What’s wrong, dear?”

“How terrible.” She hugged her daughter tightly and let her cry for a minute.

Tuna had been one of the family pets, but especially little Lisa’s. It had all started three years ago when Lisa’s father and older brothers had taken her out fishing, to catch some Magikarps for dinner. Nearly anything that ate meat would eat a Magikarp, and still they were so common that nobody paid much mind to them. Certainly they had never heard of someone training the red fish.

But then one of the boys pulled up a strange yellow Magikarp. It was beautiful, a glistening golden scaled fish with slightly curled whiskers. Lisa had fallen in love with it at first sight, begging her father not to kill it, but to let her keep it as a pet. After hardly any thought, he said yes. One of her brothers lent her a Pokeball to catch the fish with and from then on, Tuna was part of the family.

As expected, Tuna was no trouble to take care of. They lived near a river and a small lake, so Tuna could play in the waters a bit each day. He was a playful fish, splashing anyone who came near. He liked to swim deep, then rush up to the surface, leap out as high as he could, then crash back down in a huge explosion of water. At least, as huge as he could make them, mostly about a foot high.

And he would laugh too, a “Gweh heh heh,” that was hoarse and hilarious just by itself. Guests would see Lisa and Tuna sitting in chairs next to each other; although a fish, he did not mind dry land so long as Lisa was near. The guests would ask if they seriously were keeping a Magikarp instead of, say, a Horsea or a Barboach. Then Tuna would go, ‘Gweh heh heh,” making the guests laugh as well.

There had been some problems. They didn’t show up until Lisa started school. When her classmates would talk proudly of their Pokemon, Lisa would happily tell them about her beloved Tuna. Then they’d laugh at her, teasing her for having a pet that most anybody else would have eaten. She got upset and frustrated by this. Nobody would make fun of Billy and his Tauros, and several kids kept a Miltank for a pet. But they all made fun of Tuna.

Despite the teasing, she never once thought about letting him go. She loved Tuna, no matter what anybody else thought of him. With encouragement from her family and teachers, she endured the teasing. Eventually, she made some friends that saw just how funny Tuna could be.

There was still a risk of something else eating Tuna. Tame Pokemon would refrain from such behaviors, so there was no worries about one of her brothers having a Fearow. But wild Pokemon wouldn’t care if the Magikarp was a pet. They would see Tuna as a potential meal. Still, a dragon? Lisa’s mother couldn’t think of any dragons that lived in this area.

“What kind of dragon was it?” she asked.

“Big scary dragon,” Lisa murmured.

“We can’t have a dragon hanging around. It’ll scare all the other fish away. We’d better drive it off.”

“But momma, what if it eats us too?”

“We’ll be fine. Sparkler, come here.” She clapped her hands.

The Manectric bounded over to them, holding her mane high. “Hzzzkizzk?”

“We may have to do battle. Come.” She went to the lake, Sparkler trotting beside her. After a moment, Lisa followed, holding her mother’s hand.

The lake was quiet of even Pokemon noises. Whatever this dragon was, it was scaring off everything. The myriad of trees were still, perhaps not moving a leaf to attract the enemy’s attention. The lake surface was smooth, occasionally betraying the dragon’s presence with a long ripple. Sparkler sniffed the air, then whined. She had her head down with anxiety. But with her family there, she would stay and make sure that they were okay.

The open Pokeball was still on the dock where Lisa had dropped it. “See, I was playing with Tuna,” she whispered. “Then he dove down and there was a bunch of thrashing underwater, and then it showed up.”

Her mother picked up the Pokeball, noting the status display. There was a green light. “Funny. This says that he’s alive.”

“Is he?” Lisa asked in a puzzled and nervous voice. “Tuna! Where are you? Come back!”

The water’s surface rippled close to them, then exploded upwards as the serpentine dragon burst out of the lake in front of them. It had cinnamon red scales, long winding whiskers, and a mouth full of sharp white teeth. “GWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!” it called in a deep booming voice that echoed through the woods. Numerous alarmed calls answered from the local wildlife.

Lisa shrieked and clung to her mother’s waist. Sparkler growled, determined to protect her family. But then she stopped and sniffed the air. The Manectric walked to the edge of the dock, tail held high in curiosity.

The red dragon swam forward and sniffed back. It appeared to grin, a dangerous looking smile. “Hah hah.”

“Hzzzou,” Sparkler replied, in a glad sound she used to greet her friends.

“What’s going on?” Lisa asked, looking puzzled at Sparkler.

Her mother patted her head. “Sweetie, I think this is Tuna. He seems to have evolved.”

“T-Tuna?” She took a step forward, then hesitated. “But you’re so big.”

“I’ve heard of a pseudo-dragon called Gyarados,” she added. “Maybe this is it? I certainly never heard of a Magikarp evolving.”

“Hah hah,” Tuna said again. He leaned forward and nosed Lisa. “Gyooo.” He appeared to be apologizing for scaring her.

Lisa gave a short laugh. “Hey, that tickles. Are you really Tuna?”

“Gweh-heh.” He came closer to the dock so that he was sitting sideways to it. He looked back at her and growled contentedly.

The mother smiled and nudged her daughter. “I think he’s offering a ride around the lake.”

“Really?” She ran forward to hug Tuna’s head and squealed, best friends with him again.

-+-

The 'dex entry idea is great, thanks! Edited story to add that.

I can give you a few good reasons (from R/B/Y/FR/LG) why they may not know about Magikarp's evolutions:

1. The Pokedex is a new technology to gather information about Pokemon. Therefore, the information it holds is probably not available to the public.

2. There's a guy in the Viridian Forest area (I think) who complains about the con artist at Mt. Moon selling him a worthless Magikarp.

3. For that matter, why would the guy be selling Magikarps for 500 dollars? If he knows about the evolution, I'd think he'd rather raise them into Gyrados and earn way more money by battling.

4. The Fishing Guru who gives you the Good Rod talks about how the Old Rod only catches lousy Magikarp.

Therefore, I assume most people in the Pokemon world know a lot about a few kinds, but would miss some facts that we would find obvious with the Pokedex in hand.

Next story may come up in a few days, based on Skitty. Stay tuned!

Actually, just read on; These stories had to be shuffled to refit the index when Unova and Kalos came into being.

-+-

This story came together nicely, so I got done before I expected to. I admit that this one has an extra inspiration. I wanted to catch a Skitty, but could never find it in the wild. That is, until I ran into five in a row...

Glad to know you guys are enjoying this too! Remember that you can request Pokemon; I started with just the ideas for Magikarp and Skitty, so now I need a new one.

SKITTY
Ruby entry: Skitty has the habit of becoming fascinated by moving objects and chasing them around. This Pokemon is known to chase after its own tail and become dizzy.

Old Man Thomas was a grouch. People steered clear of him, as far away as they could get. If a person got unlucky enough to be in a conversation with Thomas, he or she would be subjected to hour long rants about how the youth of today were no good, or on the invasion of technology, or on the annoyances of bugs. Thomas had a complaint about everything.

He was most often found wearing his patched-up tan coat (“All the clothes they got now are wimpy.”), his brown pants (“Them jean-wearing young bucks ain’t got no respect.”), an old shirt (“New ones are all stiff and starchy.”), brown boots (“Sandals? What are you, crazy? You’ll get your feet all muddy!”), and a floppy fishing hat with a long tan feather sticking out top (“It belonged to my dear Pidgeot, may he rest in peace. We knew how to train critters in those days, not like these snippity young hoodlums that have to catch every durn type out there. Ridiculous!”).

Every day, Old Man Thomas followed the exact same routine. He got up early and yelled at the neighbor’s Zigzagoon for barking. He did any shopping in the morning, subjecting the attendants to gruff critiques. He went fishing, even though he never seemed to catch anything. He had a sandwich for lunch, then took a nap under a tree. In the afternoon, he fished again, this time yelling at any trainers or Pokemon that got too close. In the evening, he went home for supper and yelled at the Zig’oon again. Then he watched TV, complaining about anything that was on until it was time to go to bed.

And at that fateful time, it was quarter to one on a warm day. A light breeze blew through the area. Old Man Thomas turned on his radio to catch the relaxing Clefairy song broadcast. Instead, he heard, “This just in: there are reports of an unusual amount of Skitties on Route... fizzz.”

“Blasted wind,” he muttered. “Messing up the signal.” Eventually he got the Clefairy station in clear and settled down for his daily nap.

“Mew? Skiiiity.”

Thomas opened his eyes to find a small pink feline sitting on his cooler. It was, undoubtably, cuter than any being had the right to be. It has wide hazel eyes and tufted pointy ears. It had tiny paws and a poofy tail. Leaning over his head, the little feline was pawing at the Pidgeot feather that had been swaying in the breeze.

“Buzz off,” Thomas said sharply.

“Skiii!” The Skitty dashed away.

“Blasted no good feline,” he muttered. He closed his eyes again.

“Skiiiity.”

This time, there were two Skitties, twice the unnatural cuteness. They were swaying their heads to the Clefairy music, but didn’t seem particularly sleepy. They were watching him and the Pidgeot feather.

“I told you to buzz off!”

“Skiii!” “Skiii!” The two bounded off.

Thomas glared at them for a moment. How dare they disturb his daily nap. Next time, he wouldn’t be nice. After waiting for a minute to see if they’d reappear, he leaned back against his napping tree again. “Not even the critters show decent respect anymore,” he grumbled, then went back to sleep.

“Skiiiity.”

Not two, but five appeared now. They all sat on his cooler, swaying their heads to the Clefairy music and watching the feather. In an eerie manner, they mimicked each other exactly.

The grumpy old man flung his arm out over the cooler. “STOP pestering me, you little punks!”

“Skiii!” “Skiiii!” “Skiii!” “Skiiii!” “Skiiii!” With a grace that was also cute, they dodged his arm and rushed off into the tall grass.

Now he glowered. “I thought you buggers were supposed to be rare!”

“Mew?”

“Get outta here!”

“Skiii!” There was a rustling in the grass.

“I outta let that doggone Zig’oon go at you.” He watched for several minutes. After hearing and seeing nothing more of the pink felines, he settled back down for his nap. He was going to lose some serious fishing time if this went on.

“SKIIIITY!”

This time, he jumped up. What greeted his eyes was a mass of pink tails and tufted ears. A whole flock of Skitties had shown up. Like an ocean of cuteness, their heads swayed back and forth in waves to the Clefairy music. Every single one of them stared up at him.

“YOU MISERABLE LITTLE BEASTS!!!”

This time, they did not run. They continued swaying their heads, looking up at him.

Old Man Thomas ran in a panic, screaming back into town. Too many Skitties.

“Mew?” A few of the Skitties looked at each other.

“Mew!” They all ran after Thomas.

Last edited: Dec 17, 2013

Pokedex OS- Still trying to capture every single Pokemon out there in words: 648/718 Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh complete!

Oooh, you could use the entry for Shuppet for a story, it said something about them flocking around people with thoughts of revenge. I remember thinking that could be used for a neat little story.
And again, great work! You described old Thomas's quirks perfectly, and the creepy Skitty were great too (I've never liked them much...hmm). I'm really enjoying these, keep it up!

I'm liking this so far, I don't know why I didn't read this sooner. The Magikarp one was very cute, and the Skitty one-shot with torturing Old Man Thomas was just adorable. Who knows what you'll come up with next!

Hmm... I wonder if you could do Hoppip. They are always being carried away by wind, even out to sea. Always makes me wonder why they don't mind being blown away with a smile on their little faces.

Oooh! I liked them both! The idea of basing stories around Pokedex entries is very original. However, I could predict what was going to happen in both of them. I knew that Tuna the Magikarp was going to evolve once I realized that Lisa wasn't kidding about him being "eaten". Also, I predicted that more Skitty were going to pop up on Old Man Thomas. But all in all, you did quite well.

Originally Posted by Ledian_X
And now you have God prancing around your ranch. How DO you sleep at night?

@oRaNgE~1337: I'll go back and fix a fw of those. And the plural of Kitty is Kitties, so the plural of Skitty should be Skitties in my mind.

@encas: About these being predictable, it is rather restraining to use only the 'dex entries. So long as they're interesting, I don't mind.

In process-Shuppet
On deck-Hoppip

TORKOAL
Emerald entry: It battles using energy it gets from burning coal. When loosing (sic) smoke from its nostrils, it lets off a sound that is similar to a locomotive's horn.

The Route was beautiful in green grass and bright wildflowers. Putting her hands behind her head, Nadia strolled along in no hurry. “I’d almost think the map was outdated,” she said to no one in particular. “Given that I’m going to a volcanic area known as the Fire Path on this nice grassy meadow.”

She stretched, then checked her wrist computer. She scrolled the Poketch screens to her email bin. There, she had a message from Professor Oak: ‘Current Pokedex pictures of wild Slugma are unacceptable. Please seek out replacements. Recorded areas of Slugma habitats: Fire Path, Hoenn; Sevii Islands volcanic region, Johto. Payment for replacements will be determined upon previews.’

It also had an attachment of the unacceptable pictures, or picture as it was. It was a low-quality image of two or three Slugmas. The group was huddled together to where the untrained viewer couldn’t tell where one Slugma ended and another began.

‘This should be easy’, she thought. Just about anything would be better than that picture. No fee was set, but she knew Oak paid well for good pictures. Although she’d never met the man in person, she had made enough sales to him to trust that he’d equal her effort.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an impatient whinny. Before she could even get to saying, “Now what?” she saw the problem. An enormous tortoise was crawling.....ever.....so.....slowly toward the entrance of the Fire Path. Its tough skin was the color of clay while its tougher shell was the color of charcoal. The shell had a few holes in it, from which tendrils of black smoke curled out. The Pokemon stood five feet tall, but was easily eight feet wide, leaving only a margin of error for it to enter the cave.

Next to the tortoise was an irritated Ponyta, flipping his fiery tail and stomping his foot because the tortoise was blocking the way. He was also five feet tall, but only if he held his head up. The tortoise was unfazed by the Ponyta’s tantrum.

Nadia gave a quick whistle. “Marcus, come here.”

The Ponyta gave one last snort and one last stomp, then walked back to Nadia. He had a ‘I’m only doing what you say because I like you,’ look on his face.

“I appreciate your cooperation,” she told her Pokemon. “But I’m not sure what that is. We’d better not bother it too much.”

Even though they’d better not, Nadia could never resist taking a picture of a Pokemon she had not seen before. She could squeeze both an identification and an extra fee out of Oak if she got a good photo of this beast. However, getting the south end of a north-bound Pokemon did not make for a valuable photo. She would have to get around it, or in closer.

The unknown Pokemon took.....another.....slow.....step.....forward.....and....dragged.....its.....body.....along. Nadia crept alongside the giant tortoise, signaling Marcus to stay where he was. He pawed at the ground, nervous about letting her get close to a Pokemon bigger than he was. When the photographer got to the outer wall of the tunnel, she aimed her camera and clicked the first shot.

At that, the tortoise.....turned.....its.....head.....and.....blinked.....at.....her. It.....snuffled,.....sending.....twin.....ribbons.....of.....charcoal.....smoke.....into.....the.....air.

Nadia was able to take several shots before Marcus got too antsy and rushed to her. He growled, letting the tortoise know, in no uncertain terms, that it was not to harm the photographer. In response, the tortoise snapped its neck out to bite the Ponyta.

Seeing it move quickly startled Nadia into tumbling backwards. Marcus hopped out of the way and growled again, asking if the strange creature dared to challenge him. The tortoise responded with, “HOOOOOOOOO,” that sounded somewhere between a horn and a whistle. It released a thick cloud of smokey ash that momentarily blinded the human and Ponyta.

Nadia managed to grab her shirt to cover her mouth and nose with before breathing in too much of the heavily scented smoke. Still, it stung her eyes and irritated her throat, forcing her to cough when the smoke began to thin. Marcus sneezed several times in a row, enduring it better due to his natural affinity for fire. When they could see clearly, the strange tortoise was gone.

She got up and walked away from the Fire Path entrance to a clear spot of air, then took a long drink from her canteen. Marcus shook his head and snorted, annoyed that the stranger had gotten away. “Are there going to be more of those things in there?” Nadia wondered aloud. “I’m gonna reek of charcoal by the end of the day.”

Still, a job was a job. She went in to find the Slugmas.

(In order to get the effect I wanted, some of this looks a little odd, sorry.)

Pokedex OS- Still trying to capture every single Pokemon out there in words: 648/718 Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh complete!

Heh, nice effect for the Torkoal. At the right moment, it can gallop, it seems xD. I didn't think Torkoal was five feet, I thought it was four, or something. *checks* Huh, it says it's only a foot tall. Must be a huge Torkoal, than. An old one.

Do you think you could do PMs for updates? It's all right if you don't want to, but I almost missed the update today. But it's easier to see a PM update when you're in a different forum topic. It's your choice, not everyone wishes to PM updates.

Heh. That's one of those goofs where I look at the sprite and say, that looks like it should be big and impressive. But it's small? Like when I first saw Pikachu in Coliseum; I knew it was a mouse, but didn't think that small... Eh, we'll just say it's a really old Torkoal and leave it at that.

Sure, I can start a PM list if people want me to. Especially since the updating is erratic, whenever I get one done. Just tell me if you want to be added.

Pokedex OS- Still trying to capture every single Pokemon out there in words: 648/718 Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh complete!

Very nice, I love the effect the "...."s produced. I also liked the whole photography thing, makes me want to go play Pokemon Snap again, haha
I've always pictured Torkoal as big, too, it's weird to think it's only a foot tall. Can't wait for Shuppet! =D
Oh, and if you make a PM list I'd like to be on it too